Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015

 

JULY

July 2

The Washington Post website reported that Victor Emanuel Larosa, an unarmed 23-year-old African-American man, was shot by police in a yard in Jacksonville, Florida.

July 7

The Washington Post website cited the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying that the U.S.-led coalition is responsible for the deaths of 162 civilians, including 51 children and 35 women.

July 10

The USA Today website reported that some top psychologists had helped CIA and Pentagon bolster torture. Two former presidents of the American Psychological Association served as members of a CIA advisory panel. The association's ethics office, led by Stephen Behnke, also obtained a contract to train Pentagon interrogators.

July 12

A BBC website report cited Wikileaks as saying that the United States had been spying on Japanese cabinet officials, banks and companies since at least eight years ago. Wikileaks says the United States was aware of Japan's internal discussions on issues such as trade talks, climate change policy and nuclear and energy policy - as well as the contents of a confidential briefing in Prime Minister's Shinzo Abe's residence. Wikileaks had previously released files showing the United States spied on Germany, France and Brazil - like Japan, all allies.

July 14

A Pew Research Center analysis found that children make up a larger share of the United States' impoverished than of the population as a whole - those younger than 18 make up about a quarter of the total population, but make up about a third of all Americans in poverty. African-American and Hispanic-American children in particular are overrepresented.

July 17

The Washington Post website reported that the U.S. civil rights organizations accused North Carolina of limiting the time for early voting, ending same-day registration and banning voters from casting ballots in places other than their home constituencies through legislation. The report said the conduct seriously damaged the electoral rights of the African-American voters.

July 19

The Washington Post website reported that Samuel Debase, an unarmed 43-year-old African-American man, was shot by police in Mt. Auburn, Ohio.

July 28

The Huffington Post reported on its website that former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said in an interview that "Now it's just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. Senators and Congress members. So, now we've just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over." The preferences of the average American appeared to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.

July 31

The Financial Times reported on its website that the U.S. law allows unlimited contributions to super PACs by individuals and corporations, which changed the political landscape of the nation and enabled billionaires and millionaires to donate a huge amount of fund to presidential candidates more effectively. Some affluent families hoped that they can influence the election results via their wealth. The number of donors who contributed more than one million U.S. dollars to presidential candidates would swamp the 2016 presidential race like never before.

On the same day, the USA Today website reported that according to a March report by the National Association of Realtors, the gap between rental costs and household income had been widening to unsustainable levels in the United States.

According to a report to the United Nations by Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, the UN Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, in the United States, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex youth are disproportionately represented in runaway and homeless youth programs and child welfare systems and 42 percent of them have been sexually exploited.

AUGUST

Aug. 3

In the document on the Effective promotion of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, a report of the United Nations Secretary-General submitted to the seventieth session of the General Assembly, the Human Rights Committee remained concerned about the practice of racial profiling and surveillance by law enforcement officials targeting certain ethnic minorities, notably Muslims. In December 2014, the Special Rapporteur expressed concerns over the decision not to bring to trial the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner in the United States.

Aug. 4

According to an article on the website of the U.S. News and World Report, since 2010, a total of 21 states had adopted new laws to limit the exercise of suffrage. Some states shortened the time for early voting, while others limited the number of documents identifying one as a lawful voter. A total of 14 states will carry out fresh measures to limit the exercise of suffrage for first time in 2016 presidential election. The voting rights were hit by the vicious competition between the two parties.

On the same day, CNBC Finance said data from the 2015 Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds report showed that the U.S. social security system was 25.8 trillion U.S. dollars in the red.

On the same day, in a document provided to the UN General Assembly by the UN General Secretary, the UN Human Rights Council expressed concern in relation to systematic practices of torture, ill-treatment or excessive use of force by members of the police or the security forces during arrest and/or interrogation of terroristic suspects. The Committee specifically raised the issue of the lack of a timeline for closure of the Guantanamo Bay facility and called for the transfer, as soon as possible, of detainees designated for transfer.

Aug. 5

Figures released by Pew Research Center showed 53 percent of whites say more needs to be done to achieve racial equality, up 14 percentage points from 2014. Eighty-six percent of African Americans said that changes must continue to be made to achieve racial equality.

Aug. 7

The report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, submitted by Juan E. Mendez to the UN General Assembly said the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency conducted an extraordinary rendition and secret detention program after 11 September 2001, which saw the United States collaborate with some other countries and assist one another in abducting, transferring, extrajudicially detaining and subjecting individuals to torture.

Aug. 12

According to a report submitted by the UN Secretary-General to the Assembly at its seventieth session on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the United States has yet to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The United States is so far the only country that is yet to ratify the convention.

Aug. 15

The USA Today website reported that 47 percent of rural Hispanic-American babies are born poor. The report quoted a Cornell University researcher as saying that "These babies are starting behind the starting line... And their opportunities as they move into adulthood are jeopardized."

Aug. 18

According to a Pew Research Center report, the revenue-expenditure gap in Social Security fund in the United States was projected to be around 84 billion U.S. dollars. It was forecast that Social Security's combined reserves likely would be fully depleted by 2034. The disability-insurance trust fund could run dry as soon as the end of 2016, while the old-age and survivors' fund was expected to be depleted in 2035.

Aug. 23

The United States was reported to have the worst medical care system and the highest number of infant mortalities out of 11 developed countries and it ranked second to last in preventable deaths, said a report published on the Borgen Project website.

Aug. 24

The ABC news website reported that a survey said that one in five drug abusers in some treatment programs in the United States received their first taste of these illegal substances from their parents, usually before the age of 18, and of these 6 percent even used heroin with them.

Aug. 26

A reporter and a photographer of the local CBS television station in Virginia were shot and killed while filming a morning live television report. A manifesto sent to ABC News by the killer revealed that he was motivated by an African-American church shooting happened in June, 2015 in South Carolina that was conducted by a white man.